LETTERS TO THE EbITOR
Rights of Way
SIR,—There is one aspect of the survey of rights of way now being undertaken by parish councils which 4eserves notice and consideration: the very considerable difference betwe5n the simple requirements of the Act and the elaborate instructions transmitted to parish councils by direction of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning.
It is perhaps well first to glance at:the background. In purely rural England the population has dropped by a half since, say, 1870. Holiday- makers crowd to the coasts. Those in search of a walking holiday prefer the moors. There are no strangers to walk the footpaths, and countrymen do not put on shorts and go for vigorous walks. A few paths are in regular use as short cuts. Many are very seldom used, some not within memory, and no one objects to a man going across country if he has occasion to do so. He has enough sense not to break down fences, trample on crops, or leave gates open. As far as there is interest in footpaths, it is in the repair of those irkegular use ; but since the county cannot afford to keep the roads in repair it is not surprising that there is no money to spend on the paths.
Parish councils in such places cannot therefore be expected to share the enthusiasm of the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society, or of the Ramblers' Association, joint authors of the memoran- dum circulated by the Ministry for the guidance of the councils. This memorandum has to be read to be believed. Whereas the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act merely requires the marking of paths reasonably alleged to be rights of way, together with a statement of such information as shall be considered expedient, the memorandum imposes upon the parish councillor burden which Parliament surely never meant him to- bear. He is to become an amateur historian in his research into ancient maps and documents, an amateur lawyer in his assessment of the evidence of old inhabitants, and an amateur surveyor in his minutely detailed description of the paths. He is to walk each path twice over, noting whether a stile is with or without steps, whether it is a " squeezer's stile," or a " bachelor gate," whatever those may be. He is to give his reasons for believing the path public, and to append his signature, an act which might conceivably expose him to legal action. None of this is mentioned in the Act. Even when the " definitive " map is drawn, and is reposing undisturbed perhaps for a century in the county offices, the parish councillor's work is not over. He is told that he should systematically perambulate the paths each year, and is advised that Rogation Sunday is a suitable day for this exercise !
It is not unfair to say that the memorandum bears all the marks of being drawn up by men of leisure, men who have long summer evenings, long week-ends, and long holidays, with nothing in particular to do. But their directions are to be put into effect by the very men who, although they are never in a hurry, are among the few really busy men left, namely, the working farmer, from whose ranks most parish coun- cillors in the purely rural parishes are drawn.
In many parishes the councils are following their own common-sense, marking only those paths which are, n use, omitting the rest, and not bothering about the fussy details of the memorandum. But it is hardly a matter for gratification that a document issued with the approval of a Ministry for the implementing of an Act of Parliament should be of such a nature as to merit derision and neglect. It is surely desirable that those responsible for putting this Act into effect should be supplied with the two brief sections of it in which their duties are defined. And it is surely the duty of,a Ministry to see that those whom they employ to frame directions for the implementing of an Act are not carried away by their own enthusiasms into imposing upon others burdens, whether heavy or light, which are both futile and unauthorised.—Yours faith-
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